Operation Worship

I get lots of interesting publicity campaigns across my desk but this one is kind of interesting. It’s called “Operation Worship” and it tells folks to wander into a Christian bookstore, buy a $4.99 miniature Bible with a faux-camouflage, write a personalized message inside the cover, then hand it back to the retailer to have it shipped to an American soldier serving somewhere in the world. There’s been plenty of Bible-sending campaigns to the military but this one is apparently unique because of the personalized note.

Anyway, you can learn more about it here. It’s the New Living Bible translation made to fit into a soldier’s pocket (and who knows, maybe to stop a bullet. “Watch out for jihads and come back alive,” is what one kid wrote. I looked up some of the participating 1,000 bookstores. Virginia has 50; Maryland 23 but the District only has two. Hmmm. My favorite, the National Cathedral bookstore, is not on the list. Que pasa?

SEE RELATED:

I also noticed a paucity of participating stores in lesser-churched New England: only two in Connecticut, Vermont, one in Maine and only two in Utah. Guess no one is asking the Mormon stores to participate. Why not? Meanwhile, Hawaii had 7, New Mexico had 14, Montana had 10 and Oregon, the least-churched state, had 11 participating stores.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times